Relationships that last - Getting down to business with a twist

IT is a well known fact that relationships are important and making them last especially crucial.

“The most important criteria about maintaining a good business relationship is to be serious about doing business. Don’t let the superficial things get in the way,” said Henry Lee, director, Reliance Sightseeing in Singapore.

Constantly being in touch, being genuine and “needing both hands to clap along” is how The Traveller DMC executive director, Yvonne Low, does it. Traveller is also based in Singapore.

“For a good mutual relationship to be sustaining, you need both sides to value the relationship as the critical starting point. In Asian society, we always treasure ‘guanxi’. Relationship always comes first even before business transactions. Once relationships are in place, it is so much easier for the business dealing to roll on,” Low said, who has come up with the 5 Ps of maintaining relationships with her clients. (See side bar.)

Honesty is likewise a premium. Said Lee, “I have always practised honesty and sincererity in the conduct of my business. Honesty in business is getting to be a rare virtue. It’s important to treat your customers with utmost respect. Our customers are not stupid. One immediately loses credibility when customers eventually find out that you have been feeding them crap.”

Both travel agents admit that there have been few hiccups with clients, but their business relationship remained intact, a testament to their good customer relationship skills. Said Low, “There are bound to have hiccups but never a serious one that causes a broken relationship”. And what are the special things that agents have done for their clients? “You need to establish what the client’s objectives and agenda are and meet those so long as they do not undermine your own ethics, values and principles. Then, you simply just fulfill these objectives and agenda with commitment and passion,” said Lee.

Long-term relationships are good for business and help you achieve your goals more easily. Said Anthony Wong, group managing director of Asian Overland Services Tours & Trave in Malaysia, “It is a business philosophy that 20 percent of your customers give you 80 percent of your clients. This is extremely important and we have to help them to survive. Thus, it is important that the relationship is fostered.”

Side Bar

5 P’s of maintaining good relationships:

“With a relationship, it is always easier to communicate, to express, to share openly, and to deal and relationship needs to be cultivated. If one is just cut-anddry, there is a limitation, as all humans-deep within them - long for a relationship besides the task-orientation instinct,” said Yvonne Low of The Traveller DMC. She enumerates the five most important Ps in making this happen.

1. Be people-centric; take a genuine interest in your client.

2. Know your clients’ priorities such as their business focus and needs.

3. Know your clients’ customer profiles. Knowing their needs and wants enables you to complement and work in unison with them.

4. Know your clients’ place of operations to key you in on the uniqueness of their environment. For instance, it the clients operate out from Japan or India, complement it accordingly by varying the style of approaches and respecting their protocol.

5.Partnership in business. There is more to a relationship than just closing sales. Sometimes, if a deal cannot be closed due to unequal expectation, do not allow this to jeopardise business relationship/partnership.